CJI Surya Kant Advocates Preventive Justice and Fair Risk Sharing in Infrastructure Projects

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Monday stressed the need for the infrastructure sector to move beyond “retrospective justice” and adopt a model of “preventive justice”. He said contracts and institutional systems should be structured in a way that helps resolve potential disagreements before they develop into full-fledged disputes.

Speaking at the FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference 2026, Justice Kant said the Rule of Law should not be limited to correcting problems after a project has already been affected. Instead, it should ensure that contractual obligations are clearly defined, decision-making powers are understood, risks are distributed fairly and dispute-resolution mechanisms are reliable and timely.

He noted that an effective dispute-resolution system should ideally prevent disputes from arising in the first place. According to him, the real measure of success is not the number of disputes a mechanism settles, but how rarely a project needs to rely on it. The CJI also highlighted the importance of creating a common understanding among parties about how unexpected situations will be handled during infrastructure projects. He said early action, transparent communication and quick decisions can stop disagreements from escalating into formal claims.

Justice Kant pointed out that major infrastructure projects cannot simply stop while legal proceedings continue. Construction of bridges and highways, as well as power projects, depends on timely decisions, making prolonged arbitration or appeals potentially disruptive to both schedules and economic objectives.

Calling for greater standardisation in infrastructure contracting, the CJI said key provisions covering payments, project changes, extensions of time, unforeseen circumstances and dispute resolution should follow broadly consistent frameworks rather than being drafted from scratch for every project. However, he stressed that such standardisation must remain flexible enough to account for local laws, institutional capacity and project-specific conditions.

Justice Kant said India’s infrastructure expansion is occurring at an unprecedented scale and pace. He said the country’s objective should be to develop projects more quickly while making them more resilient, sustainable and productive. He urged policymakers, developers and other stakeholders to give greater attention to clearly defined responsibilities, equitable risk-sharing, sensible standardisation, early dispute prevention and speedy, independent resolution when disagreements do arise. These measures, he said, should be viewed as essential tools of good governance rather than simply technical legal requirements.

Disclaimer: This image is taken from ANI.